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Published: April 21st 2006
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A beautiful rainbow or 2
Crater Lakes at Mount Gambier. To see as a slide show, select Full Image, and then use Next>> to scroll through the images. Introduction
We took a day trip to Mount Gambier on Tuesday. Mount Gambier is a major regional centre, located roughly half way between Melbourne and Adelaide. It has a population of about 25,000. The major draw card for us was that this region had active volcanos about 4-5000 years ago with major activity about 20-30,000 years before that. The result was a gently undulating country side with rich dark soil (used for growing potatoes and harvestable forest), volcanic craters, caves and sink holes.
The centre piece of Mount Gambier are volcanic craters that have filled with water from the aquifer. The largest is the Blue lake, that forms the town’s water supply. In summer it appears a stunning blue colour - apparently as the semi-dissolved calcium carbonate in the lake that came from the limestone layer, settles, to provide a visibility of about 17 metres and the opportunity to see ‘pure water’ in all its blueness.
Find out more about Mount Gambier in
Wikipedia.
What happened ...
After driving around the Blue Lake, we took a tour to the Blue lake surface to learn a bit more of the history and geology of the area from Gary,
Dan in the Lookout
Dan found this lookout very exciting as it had the tower, a monument, information about the geology, a walk to a water tank, and an underpass to a Blue Lake viewing platform. our tour guide. The boys enjoyed the fact and figures but I found Gary’s script recital a bit tedious.
In the centre of the town is the Cave Gardens, where the town’s storm water can re-enter the aquifer. We walked along the paths that had been decorated with porous volcanic rock and peered into the creeper-lined cave from the lookouts. A gentle cascade trickled down.
We then ventured out to the Umpherston sinkhole. This had been engineered to be a family retreat for the hot days in Mount Gambier with tables, chairs and BBQs set inside caves, cascading ivy shading the walls and walkways and a garden with fountains, hydrangeas and palms. We even met up with a brush tail possum here. It was free to visit and quite delightful.
We tried to go to the Engelbrecht cave but, as this was a guided tour run by the Lions, it unfortunately closed at 3pm.
We headed off to the Valley Lake area which was stunning. Another free place - there was a wildlife sanctuary with several board walks, many gardens, walking trails and a large Adventure playground. We contemplated the walk to Centenary Tower for the
view, but the rain came in and we thought better of it. The sun did break through, creating a magnificent rainbow going right into the Lake (we felt very fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to see it).
On the way back to Robe we went pass the Wind farm near Lake Bonney and witnessed a stunning sunset.
Dan says …
Hello readers,
Boy was I excited when I heard about Mount Gambier’s volcano. I thought I could smell the ash and see the lava bubbling already. But when I heard it was a dead volcano, then I thought there would be walks through the lava tubes, perhaps I could even go bob sledding down one of the tubes. Then I heard it was full of water. Great, I thought, I love swimming! And I started day dreaming out loud about swimming, diving and boogie-boarding. Then they said that you weren’t allowed to go swimming in it and I started to wonder why we were going there at all.
We took the tour to the Pump house in the rain. It was interesting to hear the Dream-time stories about the volcano told by our tour guide. When we got to the pump house we heard a story about a great jump that Adam Lindsay Gordon made on his horse. He was also a poet as well as dare-devil.
When we went inside we saw lots of pictures and devices, gizmos and gadgets that they used in the old times to measure water and stuff. Then we went down the stairs we heard a story about a racing car that ended up in the lake. Behind that was a model that told us about the modern day technology that is used to control the water pumping.
We took an elevator ride through an old well cavity that had been used for pumping water in the olden days. It had a glass window that let you see the inside of the well. It looked yellow with limestone bricks of different sizes. We saw the counter weight go past when we were half way down. At the bottom we opened up the doors (there were two) and we went down a long tunnel that had neon lighting. At the end of the tunnel was the pumping station. Then our tour guide showed us gravity-fed pumps spurt water over the Blue lake. It was misty at the end. The tour guide said that if the mist hit you it would be nice and refreshing.
Then we then went to a café and I had a pizza (which was delicious). Then we went to the cave gardens which had waterfalls, then we drove out to see the sink hole. At the sink hole we saw a garden at the bottom. It was a very big hole. I heard birds chirping. We saw hydrangeas and a possum (which there are two photos of).
Then we went to a wildlife park in the Valley Lake area and saw emus, kangaroos and waterbirds. There was a small island in the lake - it was a volcanic island (the Valley Lake is a volcano crater that was filled up with water and when it dried up there was a small island in it).
We then tried to find the Tantanoola tiger but had no luck - bad signposting.
Overall I enjoyed Mount Gambier - I am keen to go back in summertime (when the Blue lake is extra blue) and check out the Tantanoola caves as well.
A joke for you ...
Q: What do girl snakes write on the bottom of their letters?
A: With love and hisses
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